Brassieres, or in a more common term ‘bras’, are undergarments worn by women for covering and supporting their breasts. Apart from the fundamental functions of covering and supporting, a bra also serves an important decorative purpose to the body of the wearer. Nowadays bras are made with a variety of designs, which allow them to become appealing fashion items instead of merely as part of clothing necessities.
A bra commonly includes a front portion for covering breasts of the wearer, a back portion for connecting two ends of the front portion over the back of the wearer in use, and usually shoulder straps for connecting the front portion and the back portion to better support the breasts. For a traditional rear fastening bra, a clasp is provided at the ends of the back portion so that, when being worn, the clasp is at the back of the wearer. The clasp usually includes one or more pairs of small hooks and eyes in the form of looped metal wires, or one or more pins and grooves configuration. However, it is known to a bra wearer that, when putting on a rear fastening bra, it could be difficult for the wearer to mate the hooks with the respective eyes, or the pins with the respective grooves, at the back in a blind operation with their arms behind their back. In addition, some wearers may also find that the traditional clasps in use may cause discomfort to their body, as the traditional clasps are usually exposed to and contact the skin in use, and therefore the wearers could feel the presence of the clasp which significantly affect the comfort as required of an intimate clothing. In some circumstances, the exposed clasps may even cause scratches or sensitivities to the skin of the wearers. To overcome or at least mitigate the disadvantages of the rear fastening bras, front closure bras have been developed to allow fastening of the clasp provided at the front of the wearer. However, the problem of the discomfort to the wearers by the traditional clasps remains in the front closure bras. In addition, the traditional hooks and eyes clasp or clasp of similar designs, when used in a front closure bra, are invariably visible at the front of the bra, and therefore may negatively affect the appearance of the bra in use, which works against the decorative purpose of the bra.